By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

The packed crowd at the DW Davis Gymnasium was treated to a highly competitive game one of the Bahamas Government Departmental Basketball Association (BGDBA) Finals last night.

The Police Crimestoppers cleaned up their first-half mistakes in the second half to narrowly edge out the Nassau Flight Services Ballers 81-77 in the best-of-seven championship series.

Adam Johnson was a key player for the Crimestoppers in last night’s win. He got the job done on both sides of the ball and stuffed the stat sheet with a game-high 26 points, 19 rebounds, eight blocks and three steals while shooting 77 per cent from the field.

Johnson was one of four Crimestoppers to touch double-digit territory. 

Kirklyn Farrington had a big third quarter and finished the night with 14 points,  seven rebounds and three assists.

His teammate Dastyn Baker also had 14 points, seven assists and five rebounds in game one. Johnson spoke about how it felt to have a special night on the court for his team in the gritty win.  “That is just me. That is just what I do. I always try to go out there and do what God gave me to do with God-given talent,” he said.

The Ballers opened the game with lots of energy on offence. The team put together an early run to lead the game 14-9 at the 5:33 mark of the opening period. 

Lamont McPhee was a man on a mission and terrorised the Crimestoppers defence for eight points in the first quarter. The Crimestoppers kept it close but the Ballers wrapped up the first ahead 24-22.

The BGDBA finalists kept the game close in the second quarter. The Ballers picked up where they left off and so did McPhee. He single-handedly pushed the Ballers lead to eight (32-24) after crossing up a Crimestoppers defender and finishing at the rim with five minutes to go. 

The Crimestoppers erased the gap down to three (41-38) and went into the second half trailing 45-44.

Johnson said the coach did not mince words during the break and the team certainly responded. “He basically said to go out there and give it our all and just to play like dogs. We fed off that and that is what we love to do. The mindset going into the next game is to do the same thing and to get the W,” he said. 

The Crimestoppers came out of the break reinvigorated. 

They finally took the lead 47-45 off a momentum-shifting three converted by Farrington. 

While the Police team heated up the Ballers got cold, but Abel Joseph quieted the run with a three of his own.

Farrington continued to take over in this quarter and helped his team to extend their lead 58-52 at the 5:22 mark.

The Crimestoppers outscored the Ballers 21-15 for a 65-60 advantage to cap off the third.

The game was neck-and-neck the entire way so it was no surprise that the contest got chippy down the stretch.

Baker and the Ballers’ Deonta Tinker exchanged words with less than three minutes on the clock and were both given technical fouls. That proved to be a critical moment in the game in the fourth quarter. At that moment the score was 76-71, Johnson went on to score nine out of the last 10 points for the Crimestoppers, including a game-clinching dunk off an assist from Baker, to hand the Ballers their first loss of the series.

McPhee paced his team on the stat sheet with 21 points, three steals and two rebounds. Joseph had 20 points, 11 boards, three assists and six blocks.

The Crimestoppers dictated the pace of the game for 32 fastbreak points while holding the Ballers to 11. They also got 16 points from their bench unit while the Ballers got zero. 

Game two is set to be played 8pm Friday at the DW Davis Gymnasium.